Archive | Technology

Huxley’s 1931 novel A Brave New World depicts a weird and wonderful future that’s a dystopia masquerading as a utopia. An oppressive world government controls a person’s function in life from cradle to grave and keeps the masses blissfully intoxicated through Soma pills, encouraging people to lead debauched lifestyles.

Comparisons have often been made between Huxley’s vision of the future and Orwell’s 1984 published in 1949. Orwell envisions a fractured world ruled over by rival polities, who maintain a constant state of war in order to terrify their citizens into complacency and obedience.

American cultural critic and author Neil Postman has argued since the 80s that A Brave New World is nearer our reality than 1984 because of the way we “amuse ourselves to death”, to borrow the phrase of one of his books. Numerous elections across the world in recent years have seen anti-establishment candidates and parties winning, indicating that en masse we’re more afraid of a 1984-style global elite infringing on our freedoms in the name of security.

One of the features both books have in common however is the ubiquity of and our reliance on modern technology (or future technology as Huxley and Orwell would have seen it). A Brave New World predicted low-cost international travel and 1984 describes Skype in everything but name. The world of tomorrow that was predicted by Soviet communism and American capitalism alike is very much upon us, despite the lack of flying cars.

Cars themselves are indeed a good indication of how much technology has changed and continues to change our lives. At the moment, driverless cars are threatening professional drivers through seemingly continuous improvement. Still years or decades away from becoming the norm, the concept itself is no longer sci-fi.

Even the economy itself has changed. With the advent of the online marketplace in the 1990s, more and more industries are moving online. Companies like America’s Paypal or China’s Alibaba focus simply on moving money round the world digitally (though the former also hosts auctions and sells goods).

With the arrival of Bitcoin nearly a decade ago and its phenomenal growth in recent months, even traditional currencies are being forced to rethink their strategies. Worldwide, iGaming companies in particular are accepting payment in the cryptocurrency, with Bitcasino for Canadian players the biggest crypto-casino in its niche. The website, which offers players a 100% bonus on a first deposit, has abandoned fiat currencies altogether.

Using Bitcoin as an everyday alternative to the dollar may never come but, like driverless cars, there’s quite enough buzz for individuals and industries to be taking notice.

Perhaps the most obvious example of technology’s impact on our lives is in communication. When once it was the norm to wait for 30 minutes if a friend was running late or give that letter another few days to arrive, we now phone or text each other at the slightest delay or whim and we expect emails to be answered within hours.

Whether one is more of the opinion that Orwell’s fear drives our society or that Huxley’s hedonism is what makes the world go round—or perhaps a more positive outlook all together—no one can deny that old sci-fi concepts are now commonplace, completely normal, and perhaps even banal.

With great regret, I’ve had to delete the two blogs from the Peace Criminals Project.

The project was made up of Neocon Surveillance and Satirical-Industrial Complex; earlier on, there was also Neocon Surveillance Network, which was later folded into Neocon Surveillance.

Sadly, although I knew how to write content and manage many of the IT fundamentals, I hadn’t read up on Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

It is very important for serious writers (or anyone else with a website), to read up on SEO, and to learn how to handle this very important IT skill. You may also wish to consider using free tools, or even subscribing to paid SEO tools like MOZ.

Still, I will learn from this experience.

The overwhelming majority of the material from the Peace Criminals Project sites has been archived (other than a small proportion of stuff, most of which is pretty unimportant). The material in question will be dispersed among other sites; including, but limited to Glossy News itself.

I hope that one day, a new site will spring up from the ashes of the old.

Ages ago I helped a friend make a website. Today I got a renewal notification. Apparently I’ve been paying for his site for years without noticing it. I called to shut it down, and they told me tough luck. Nope, I’m required to keep paying for it just because.

Just to be clear, GoDaddy is a fraud organization on par with AT&T or AOL back in the day, where they’d make it impossible for you to stop getting billed. Same thing. Continue Reading

The online casino industry has made incremental progress to present itself as a real alternative to traditional gambling. Now that so many people have made the transition from brick-and-mortar casinos to the online environment, Internet competition has intensified. Not only operators, but also software developers compete for customers and try to come up with something different. NetEnt is once again at the forefront of innovation and it is ready to set an important milestone with a new virtual reality slot.

The leading provider of digital casino solutions plans on bringing an iconic slot to the realm of virtual reality. The decision to choose Gonzo’s Quest is not a coincidence, since this is one of the most popular five reel video slots. This is a bold new step into uncharted territory, but one that shows a lot of promise and carries fewer risks. Technology has evolved enough for online casinos to support VR games and get players fully immersed into the gaming atmosphere.

Virtual Reality Takes Games to the next Stage

The online casino industry isn’t the only one to positively respond to the advancements made by virtual reality technology. Videogame developers are going to great lengths to produce first-person shooters and adventure games compatible with the latest VR sets. Now that the gear is not only reliable but also inexpensive, such games can create a trend. Online casinos are booming in popularity as can be seen here, and they require even less processing power, since slots, table games and video pokers already run smoothly on mobile devices.

NetEnt representatives were happy to announce the imminent release of Gonzo’s Quest for virtual reality. They are confident that WebVR technology will quickly become the next big thing and will shape the future of online gaming. Players got the chance to check out the game and ICE Totally Gaming and it is expected to be released across the entire NetEnt network in the second quarter of 2017.

Slot machine games are one of the most colorful and loudest attractions to be found in a casino and online.

Their designs can range anywhere from plain numbers to creative themes. Slot machines have been a popular choice for many casinos to keep patrons entertained and for good reason.

Each year these machines bring in billions of dollars of revenue due to patrons seeking out the jackpot. Winning is not usually a huge part of the equation when it comes to myVegas slot machines since luck is the name of the game. Continue Reading

While there is a plethora of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets on the market, the new light, comfortable and stylish Daydream View by Google feels like a game changer.

None of the previous headsets have quite hit the sweet spot in terms of price, comfort and usability, to make VR experiences accessible to the mass market. But Google’s Daydream is considerably cheaper than the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, is far more comfortable that Google Cardboard and is for mobile VR, so users don’t require a powerful PC. Continue Reading

Ever spent so much that it literally felt like you were burning money? While it’s never a good idea to spend more than you can afford, the idea of burning your money isn’t quite as bad as it used to be. Of course, we’re not saying that you should unfold a wad of dollar bills and casually set them alight, but if you did it wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Why, we hear you cry? Well, thanks to the wonders of the Internet, you can now pay for almost anything and everything without using physical cash. In fact, you don’t even need to use a government-controlled currency such as the US Dollar or Great British Pound if you don’t want to.

Modern technology has literally revolutionized the payment world in recent years and by far the biggest innovation is cryptocurrencies. Essentially a monetary system created by the Internet and for the Internet, cryptocurrencies aren’t subject to any government sanctions and are an extremely efficient way to pay online. Continue Reading

I’ve been a PayPal user for ages. If you mistake them for a bank, you do so at your peril, because they charge the highest fees, offer the lowest interest of all (zero, for the curious), and getting customer service is like trying to explain a card trick to Comcast over the phone.

Did I mention they are awful? Well, they are, and I’ll tell you why: Continue Reading

Recently, leading scientists have invented a Donald Trump Generator that is 100% indistinguishable from the ‘real’ thing! See the follow excerpt, to see just how real the merely robotic, mindless and mind-numbing repetitive ramblings of this kitschy, cheap-ass imitation of the Trump can be: Continue Reading

WOLFSBURG – German Chancellor Angela Merkel asserted that the Volkswagen emission debacle, including years of cover-up, was “no conspiracy.”

Merkel stated: “Already there are crazy Volkswagen conspiracy theorists on the Internet who believe that two or more persons must have planned this emissions strategy. Instead, we are quite sure it was just one person, some lone nut. And we will discover the one person who is responsible, if we possibly can.” Continue Reading